If the prophet Amos lived today, I believe he’d proclaim as far and wide as possible the warning he wrote over 2500 years ago: “‘The day is coming,’ declares the sovereign Lord, ‘when I will send a famine through the land–not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it’” (Amos 8:11-12).
That doesn’t seem possible in our day, in our land. We have many versions of the Bible in print and can hear it over radio, television and the computer. We can become complacent and forget that this warning has been fulfilled, not only in the history of Israel, but other nations as well.
Consider modern Turkey. In the first century Turkey was the center of advancing Christianity. It experienced dynamic Christian growth and influence. From there the Gospel went forth to the world. Today you are hard-pressed to find copies of the Bible there. I’m told, of the 65 million people in Turkey, only a fraction of one percent are born again believers. Believers experience persecution, jail and even martyrdom.
Amos warned: “Don’t take for granted that because you have freedom of religion and the availability of God’s Word today, it will always be available tomorrow.” Hide God’s Word in your mind and heart so you’ll be ready.